آیا فساد مانع رشد اقتصادی در پاکستان می شود؟

The present study reinvestigates the impact of corruption on economic growth by incorporating financial development and trade openness in growth model in case of Pakistan. We have used time series data over the period of 1987–2009. We have applied structural break unit root test to test the integrating order of the variables. The structural break cointegration has also been applied to examine the long run relationship between the variables. The long run relationship between the variables is validated in case of Pakistan. We find that corruption impedes economic growth. Financial development adds in economic growth. Trade openness stimulates economic growth. The causality analysis has exposed the feedback effect between corruption and economic growth and same inference is drawn for trade openness and corruption. Trade openness and economic growth are interdependent. Financial development Granger causes economic growth implying supply-side hypothesis in case of Pakistan.

In recent years, there is a wide spread of corruption in many countries of the world and especially in developing economies where its consequences have serious implications. The role of institutions in fostering economic growth has been recognized widely by the economists in these days. Existence of corruption in any country indicates the weaknesses of the institutions, thus, corruption is the output of weak institutions. A common definition of corruption is the abuse of public office for private gain (World Bank, 1997). Corruption is accepted in various ways such as bribery, the sale of public property by government officials, kickbacks in public procurement, and misuse of government funds (Reinikka and Svensson, 2005). Corruption is not only an issue of one country or region but also a worldwide issue. Corruption retards economic growth and minimizes the chances of economic development in developing countries. The misuse of the public office by higher political as well as civilian authorities for acquiring national wealth has been taking place in the world at the expense of public welfare (Oni and Awe, 2012). According to World Bank, corruption is “the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the role of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends”. Corruption as a topic of research has attracted the attention of the economists of global financial institutions like World Bank and IMF in recent years due to its detrimental impacts on economic growth. Economists have described five reasons behind the corrupt society or political set up, illegal accumulation of wealth and corruption in an economy. Firstly, corrupt government is the product of corrupt society and corrupt president cares corrupt government ( Aburime, 2009). Secondly, the office of the political corrupt government collects national wealth illegally and becomes a major source of corruption in the country. Thirdly, the existence of a set of imperatives and incentives in the developing countries encourages the corruption transactions. These imperatives and incentives are such as widespread societal craze with materialism, high income inequality and poverty, exaltation and esteem of ill-gotten wealth by the general public and low and irregular salary packages for government employees with large families to bring up ( Aburime, 2009 and Frisch, 1996). Fourthly, accumulation of illegal wealth through corruption by the corrupt government encourages the other individuals of the society to have access and control over the means of corruption. In this way these corrupt individuals take the controls of the administrative process to have access to offshore accounts and practices of money laundering ( Aburime, 2009). Finally, when there is no fear of punishment in a society corruption spreads very rapidly. Taxation systems in the developing countries have many flaws and unable to track down individuals' financial activities which further promote corruption in the society.

This paper explored the relationship between corruption and economic growth by incorporating financial development and trade openness in growth model using the data of Pakistan. The study has covered the period of 1987–2009. We applied structural break unit root test to test the order of integration of the variables. The ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration was applied to examine long run relation between corruption, financial development, trade openness and economic growth. The robustness of long run results is tested by Gregory-Hansen structural break cointegration test. The direction of causal relationship between the series was tested by applying the VECM Granger causality approach. Our results found that the long run relationship exists between the variables. Further, we find that corruption impedes economic growth. Financial development enhances capitalization and hence boosts economic growth. Trade openness leads total factor productivity as well as increases domestic production and in resulting economic growth is boosted. The causality analysis reveals the feedback effect between corruption and economic growth. The bidirectional causality exists between trade openness and economic growth and, the same is true for corruption and trade openness. Financial development Granger causes economic growth, trade openness and corruption. Our findings indicate the detrimental impact of corruption on economic growth. This implies that the government must take measures to reduce the level of corruption via improving the governance in the country. Improved governance will not only control corruption but also improve the quality of domestic institutions. Efficient institutions will have positive impact on trade through effective trade policies which result in accelerated economic growth. Due to improved governance, low level of corruption will be helpful in collecting tax revenues and increased tax revenue would be a fuel for development projects and hence economic growth. This shows that improved governance will be helpful in attaining optimal fruits of trade in the presence of financial development and hence economic growth is accelerated.